Volunteer vs. Work Experience

[mam08009]

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Hi everyone! First I'd like to say that I'm new to this site but I finding all this information very helpful and seeing all the people in the same boat as myself is also rather comforting. So many of my questions were answered just by going through the threads. So thank you all!! 🙂

However, I am still wondering about volunteer hours and work experience. I work as a Mobility Aid. Has anybody heard of this job? It's a fairly new job at the hospital I work at but it's almost like a rehab aide in the sense we are given a list of patients, usually they have heart or pulmonary complications and sometimes cognitive disorders and we would try to have them walk just to stretch their legs out, improve their mobility, reduce their anxiety, etc. I know when I say mobility aid, literally everybody thinks that I'm a transport aid lol 🙄 I also get the opportunity to work with OTs to help them out with a patient if they need assistance. This is how I gained a good amount of exposure of the OT field.

I have almost 250 hours working as a mobility aid at the moment (and I love every second of it!). My question is, because of this job, do I need more volunteer hours? I also have 25 hours with a school OT and 110 hours volunteering on a med surg floor as a patient care rep. I am already planning on expanding my OT hours by working at a nursing home, hand therapy, etc. but I've been seeing a lot of people having TONS of volunteer experience. Will my work experience replace the lack of volunteer hours I have? Especially since I'm so exposed to the OT field with this job?

Also since I'm here, I'm wondering what is the average amount of observation hours most applicants have with OTs. I know I don't have enough at the moment, but I'm working on it and would like to know what is an acceptable amount.

Thanks!

 

[OTdream]

I think you working as a Mobility Aid definitely can't hurt. However you need more OT hours especially if you need a LOR from an OTR. I think most people have about 100hrs min as OT volunteer.

 

[Johann00]

Every program I applied to laid out a minimum amount of hours of volunteer they "liked" to see on applications. One school even required that the hours be spread over 3 specific OT settings. And still another said volunteer hours weren't required but said that they helped to enhance an application.

I would check the school's website or call the program's administrator. Every school is going to be different, but from what I gathered during my application process, the more hours you can reasonably do; the better.

As a reference, I had about 100 hours and that was ample for all the programs I applied to. Good luck!

 

[STCM]

From what I understand, you can use OT-related work experience in place of volunteer experience if you work closely with OT's on a regular basis, as long as you mention that in your description of your job. If one of the OT's you work with can give you a strong recommendation, that would be even better than a volunteer position, where OT's often don't get to see a volunteer enough to give them a thorough LOR. Since you already have some volunteer time in a different setting under your belt, I'd say you're good. But, as mentioned above, you'll want to contact the programs you're applying to just to make sure.